McBoozo's Drunken Poetry Jam :: Drunk As Hell & Starting To Smell!

Well, I finally got yousendit working correctly and I'll be using it to post mp3 files from now on. All downloads will be available for 7 days and all you have to do is click on the link to download the songs. Hope you enjoy, and with that being said...

Time now for another edition of...

Bring It on Home to Me - Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history -- he was also the inventor of soul music, and its most popular and beloved performer in both the black and white communities. Equally important, he was among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of the music business, and founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. Yet, those business interests didn't prevent him from being engaged in topical issues, including the struggle over civil rights, the pitch and intensity of which followed an arc that paralleled Cooke's emergence as a star.

"Bring It on Home to Me" is one of Sam Cooke's greatest songs. Over a rolling rhythm that sounds like it could go on forever, a man asks a woman to come back to him, apologizing, forgiving her for her transgressions, and promising her presents if she will just bring her "sweet loving" on home to him. But though the lyrics had a pleading tone, the melody never emphasized its desperation. You almost felt that the woman would be compelled to return just by that steady, compelling rhythm. Cooke recorded the song on April 26, 1962, accompanied in call-and-response style by backup singer Lou Rawls.

Roller - April Wine

April Wine is a perfect example of a band that critics loved to loathe in the 1970s and 1980s -- you could fill an encyclopedia with all the negative reviews that First Glance received in 1978. Critics detested commercial hard rock/arena rock items like "Hot on the Wheels of Love," "Roller" and "Get Ready for Love" with a passion, but fans of the Canadian band paid no attention and bought the album anyway. First Glance wasn't meant to be challenging or cutting-edge; April Wine's mission was to pull the listener in with infectious grooves and hooks and enable him/her to escape -- and this album definitely accomplishes those things. One of April Wine's finest releases, First Glance is easily recommended to hard rock enthusiasts.

Brightest Light - Screaming Lord Sutch

He couldn't properly be considered part of the British Invasion -- he never had a hit in the U.S. or the

U.K.

-- but Screaming Lord Sutch laid some unheralded groundwork for the phenomenon. With a rock & horror act based to a large degree on Screamin' Jay Hawkins, David "Lord" Sutch was one of the first genuine rock & roll longhairs, and his bands employed such sterling instrumentalists as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Nicky Hopkins, and Mitch Mitchell before they became famous. His early-'60s singles -- mostly over-the-top Halloween novelties or covers of early rock and R&B standards -- are genuinely energetic and fun performances that rank among the few out-and-out raunchy rock & roll records waxed in Britain before the ascension of the Beatles. A well-known public figure in

Britain

, he ran for Parliament several times in the '60s, representing the National Teenage Party, and he founded the pirate radio station Radio Sutch in 1964.

“Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends” was an infamous album by London scenemaker Sutch, who, among other things, claimed to be a genuine Earl and to have started the long hair craze of the '60s. His infamy bought him some heavy friends indeed for his first LP. Jimmy Page (who produced and played), John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins and Noel Redding are all on hand to support Sutch's R&B retreads. The album is regarded as a kind of Plan 9 From Outer Space of rock LPs: it's bad, but endearingly so, with Sutch's growling vocals providing the laughs.